Search form

You are here

Focus pads

Hi all, just wanted to ask a question related to focus pads. If you are teaching traditional karate and practicing multiple strike combinations on focus pads should you get students to do full hikite with non hitting hand or keep the non punching hand free and up front in a guard position (like a boxer) whilst the other strikes the pad?

If you are hitting the pads as kihon striking practice in single strike moves rather than in combos, then you want to get students to be able to do the same full technique as per kata. However, as real fights are fast and messy affairs an unattached hikite is pointless.

The pad drill can vary based on the targeted context. So working single kihon practice or solo kata practice then the pad/punch bag is there to replace the air. Hikite is worked as normal. So a progression for air striking.

If I want to work the technique against pads or the punch bag in terms of kihon combinations and kata combinations drills then I also introduce pushing, pulling, pressing, peeling to work the hikite hand fully. So that's progressing towards a more realistic context, but not quite there yet.

I also introduce elastic cords to resist the techniques, especially when training alone, so that my hikite component is being worked as effectively as the striking component.

Working against the pad/bag and taking into account movement, whether being moved by the holder or as a result of your own force is a good practice for the messy affair.

So I make sure the students know what the context and can adjust accordingly.

The padwork improves their ability to make contact and deliver it with a good biomechanical alignment, but do you see it as primary or secondary training? As you say withdrawing the hand isn't going to be of much benefit for kumite due to the loss of a guard. If you are doing it for the kata then I'd argue that again it has little benefit since the withdrawal hand is of more practical use in the Uke techniques than any punches.

If you are teaching traditional karate and practicing multiple strike combinations on focus pads should you get students to do full hikite with non hitting hand or keep the non punching hand free and up front in a guard position (like a boxer) whilst the other strikes the pad?

I would say that the hand should never be pulled to the hip if it is empty. Doing so serves no practical purpose, it takes the hand further away from the target and hence slows down the following strike, and it also exposes the head for no gain.

I’d caution against the “like a boxer” comparisons as that hand position is optimal for boxing, but not for bare fists. The hands are not gloved; so you can’t hide behind those gloves. The fact the hands are not gloved also means they can grab, clear limbs, locate targets etc. The distance is also closer so having the hands back to block and cover is not effective (too passive). The hands should therefore be a little further forward in order to effectively control the “middle ground” in a proactive manner. I’m probably nit-picking though as the essential idea is the hands should always be “up” if they are not active … BUT it is always better for them to be active than up :-)

One the pads (and in sparring, two person drills, etc, etc) the hand should only come back if you are stripping your partner’s other arm out of the way, grapping the pad-holder to simulate locating the enemy for a strike etc. It should never drop for no purpose.

Mr P wrote:

If you are hitting the pads as kihon striking practice in single strike moves rather than in combos, then you want to get students to be able to do the same full technique as per kata.

Absolutely. However, if the techniques on the pads are truly going to be as per the kata, then the hikite should always be active (or be held up until it is active). I’d not want my students pulling an empty hand to the hip at any point other than in solo kata … where they are very clear it is representative of not being empty. Pulling empty hands to the hip in pad work would, in my view, be a dangerous practise that is engraining bad habits.

Mr P wrote:

However, as real fights are fast and messy affairs an unattached hikite is pointless.

Totally. It is pointless and hence it should be avoided in both training and application so there is no split between the two.

Eight years ago I wrote and article on this topic which can be found here (notice how much younger I look in the photos!):

Thanks for the replies. I think I am on the right track but you all said it better than me. That's what I like about the forum, it helps clarify thinking and training philosophy. Not sure how I can make use of hikite hand when using pads but look forward to learning from pad week as tweeted.

Here's one simple drill. Have the pad holder put his hands in a 'prayer-like' position - so palm to palm. Have the striker stand to the pad holder's left hand side. Make sure that the pad holder has good structure to be able to receive the strike - so for example the holder may need to turn slightly diagonally toward the striker to reinforce his posture.

Now, for the drill.... you have to imagine that the holder's left hand (the one nearest to you) is covering their head (in this case their right hand). The striker, using his own left hand, pulls the holder's left hand away from the pad it's covering and hits the pad with their right hand.

It's a nice simple drill for using the hikite to remove a covering limb whilst simultaneously striking with the other hand.

You can swap sides and drill the opposite hands too of course and there are lots of variations of limb removal that you can do with this drill depending on how the pad holder holds out the covering / protecting arm.

Great find that Holder. Those are strong drills. Personally I'd modify a couple of them so that uke is never moving backwards but rather off to 45 degrees. Even from a push I'd rather drill a move off line rather than straight backwards. Also, I'd avoid body shots as I don't think that they're effective enough in high adrenalin situations.

I've realised that I'm about to cross threads here with the "members thread". I'll try to be concise.

Speaking for my club, that was originally "traditional" it takes time to progress methodically to a more practical approach. It's been about three years now. We still do line drills of air kihon and kumite 1,3,5 step. We didn't do a lot of pad/bag/shield work before so as part of the progression we've been adding this in. I'm finding by slowly incorporating the systems that Iain describes (impact/bunkai etc) is slowly and surely evolving folks to be better karate-ka. I didn't want a big bang approach because I wanted folks to adapt at their own speed.

Focusing on hikite in particular I wanted to introduce impact training in this stepped approach. So for kyu grades I have a section for impact kihon that does pull an empty hikite. It's not until the dan grades that I have other pad/bag/shield sections that introduce the hikite component for assailant management. However, I find that folks (beginners and experienced who are evolving away from "high school" karate) are able to compare air kihon with impact kihon and relate to the physical differences between both and I think it gives them the confidence to improve their overall kihon.

However, with that said I never demonstrate hikite in terms of power generation. The engine is your hips/abdomen. Even with air kihon I ask the students to visualise pushing/pulling/grabbing etc. In our kyu grade self defence then we make full use of the hikite and we describe and explain the differences.

I realise now that perhaps I need to start adding focus pad drills like Rakesh's. I think we've progressed enough to start evolving a bit more. No problem with beginners because to be blunt, in the main, they don't know any different. However, context needs to be explained and why during "air" kihon the hikite is tidied away and why during other context it is fully utilised.

Historically speaking I wonder if the "traditional" explanation of the hikite was a way of ordering or tidying up air kihon so that it solved the dangling hand problem. Not for a practical reason but an aesthetic reason.

Thanks for those posts. I can understand now how to go about using a hikite on pads. The Rakesh Patel pad drills look great.

Ally, I can relate to your last post. My new club started last month and I am going to go through the same slow evolution in moving from traditional JKA style karate to more practical style. I plan to keep hold of the 5, 3, 1 step kumite so that people know what it is if they go to other shotokan clubs. I can teach the stuff that I know but realise I am not so confident, knowledgable and skillfull that I can stop doing them as others have, that would be a possibility for the consideration later. Developing the pad drills is the way forward for now.

I've taught for years that the hands should be out in front and actively striking blocking jambing and whatever you can think of to unbalance, disturb, setup and strike your opponent. Especially after kicks, so many martial artist have their hands down or to their sides and are unable to strike. I'm very fond of jambing and grabbing before and after kicks or any manuvor.

It's refreshing to hear someone saying so much of the same things that I've found so obvious for years.

As for the reference to boxing and covering up, tonight I said that the the punches we train are hard to block since they come straight in and if someone covered their face with their hands I'd simply punch their hands. Fight's over! However we need to realize that people never through the kind of punches that most karate-kas train with so we need to keep in mind that if we train against real street punching then we are preparing ourselves for the street. If we don't train for reality then we will have a big problem when we have a street confrontation